From 1 July 2023, work restrictions for student visa holders will be re-introduced.
Student visa work restrictions were relaxed throughout the pandemic and completely removed in January 2022 to allow primary and secondary student visa holders to work over their normal limit of 40 hours per fortnight to address workforce shortages.
The Australian Government has announced that student visa holders already working in the aged care sector on 9 May 2023 can continue to work unrestricted hours in the aged care sector until 31 December 2023.
From 1 July 2023, work restrictions for all other student visa holders will be re-introduced and capped at the increased rate of 48 hours per fortnight. This ensures that student visa holders are able to focus on obtaining a quality Australian education and qualification, while remaining able to support themselves financially, gain valuable work experience, and contribute to Australia’s workforce needs.
Maintaining the different requirements for varied visa holders with changing conditions can be challenging and is certainly an administrative burden on employers. It is essential to ensure that all visa requirements are met and specific conditions relating to the right to work are followed. Employers who knowingly or unknowingly employ international students or holders of other types of visas beyond the conditions of their visas can face significant fines and penalties.
At CheckWorkRights, we provide solutions to Australian employers to efficiently and effectively manage visa-holding employees as part of their employee population.
CheckWorkRights users can see at a glance exactly how many visa holders are employed by their organisation, what visa they hold, what conditions attached to that visa may limit their right to work, and at what location they are employed. This visibility enables efficient and timely operational management decisions to be made with regard to rostering to ensure that inadvertent compliance breaches do not occur.
With the automated solutions offered by CheckWorkRights, employers can maintain compliance when hiring and employing visa-holding employees. Schedule a demo to learn more about the features of our application, explore use cases for your business, and get pricing information.